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Why Does Music Aid in Memorization?

A Memory Expert on How Songs Get Stuck in Your Mind

By

Heidi Mitchell

Dec. 30, 2013 9:52 p.m. ET

The words to a holiday song bubble up to the surface of the brain, even decades since last hearing the tune. Yet recalling a bank-account password can put the mind in a twist. Neuroscientists have long debated the brain mechanisms related to memory, but they agree on one thing: Information set to music is among the easiest to remember. One expert, Henry L. Roediger III, professor of psychology at the Memory Lab at Washington University in St. Louis, explains how songs easily stick in the mind.